BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Soul singer and disco queen Candi Staton rose to top of the charts in the 70s with her hit song “Young Hearts Run Free,” but her musical career began at the age of 10 in a small town in Alabama.

Just one look at Candi’s life makes it clear that her musical success is only amplified by her humble beginnings, tribulations and indomitable spirit.

As a child, teen and young adult, Candi suffered physical and emotional abuse. During those same early years, she wrestled with being taken advantage of in the music industry, and, in the past decade, she has battled breast cancer. 

Still, over the course of her career, she has released 29 albums and 87 EPs and singles. She has authored three books, worked with numerous musical legends and founded an organization, A Veil of Silence, to “provide preventive tools to assist victims of domestic violence.” And at the age of 84, Candi is far from stopping. 

The Candi Staton Story

Born in an “old log cabin” on March 13, 1940, in Hanceville, Alabama, Candi spent her early years as a “country girl” in rural Alabama.

One of six children, Candi was accustomed with growing her own food, tending gardens and killing hogs. Her mother was a housewife and her father was a coal miner. He was also, according to Candi, a liar, an alcoholic and a gambler.

“The money that we raised, that we gathered with the crops and stuff, he would drink it up or he gambled it away,” Candi said. 

Largely due to her father’s addictions, at the age of 10, Candi, her mother and her siblings left her father behind, moving to Ohio with her 19-year-old brother.

Prior to moving, while Candi was still in Alabama, her mother’s friend overheard her singing one day while she was playing outside and relayed Candi’s talent to her mother and her pastor, Rev. Williams.

After hearing Candi sing, Rev. Williams, who led a Baptist church in Hanceville, decided he would take Candi and her sister, Maggie, out on the road to perform before he preached.

“(My sister and I) learned how to sing through just listening to the old radio,” Candi said.
“We would sing ourselves to sleep at night … We weren’t really confident; We didn’t know we were good.”

But Rev. Williams knew and took the two all over Alabama – to Decatur, Huntsville, Birmingham, Warrior and more. The south, Staton said, is the reason she is a singer.

The sisters were eventually joined by two other girls and named the Four Golden Echoes.

Soon after, in Cleveland, Ohio, Candi and Maggie were spotted by Bishop Jewel, a preacher who had a church in the city. The bishop also owned a school in Nashville that Candi and Maggie were later sent to. 

Before long, Candi and Maggie had convinced the bishop’s granddaughter, Naomi, to sing with them, and the three formed The Jewel Trio. Candi likened the group to the Jackson 5 – with herself as Michael Jackson, of course.

The group soon went from performing songs for Bishop Jewel to eventually performing at the chapel everyday. Together, Bishop Jewel and Bishop Harris, Naomi’s father, decided to take the girls out of the road to perform at some of the 30 churches Bishop Jewel oversaw. At the start, Candi was 11, Maggie was 13 and Noami was 10.

“Somehow, (Bishop Harris) convinced Nashville records to record us,” Candi said. 

This was the period of time Candi marked as her “big break.” While touring, the three girls performed with Sam Cooke, the Davis Sisters, the Harmonettes, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Mahalia Jackson and more.

“I couldn’t imagine ever doing it,” Candi said. “Coming from Hanceville? With hardly anything to wear? … We had to stay at home sometimes because we didn’t have shoes to wear in the winter time to school. Here I am on stage with all these big artists that I had admired all my life.”

However, things took a turn for Candi when she got to her senior year of high school.

“I realized that we were being used financially,” Candi said. “Everybody else was getting paid for their work and Bishop Jewel, they weren’t giving us anything.”

While on the road, the three girls had been tutored by James Peebles, as they were missing conventional school. Maggie later married Peebles, leaving Candi alone with the group. As soon as she turned 18, Candi left, too.

“I just went to Bishop Jewell and said, ‘I’m tired. I can’t do this anymore.’ And I went back to Alabama,” Candi said. 

Going back to Alabama was a shock for Candi. She went from performing with some of the biggest stars of the time to sitting on the porch watching chickens.

“I was bored to tears,” Candi said.

Her boredom created the perfect storm for Joe Williams, son of Rev. Williams, to swoop in. While Candi worked to finish high school, the two connected and began to go on dates, bringing entertainment into the former starlet’s now “boring” life. 

“I was having fun. (But) there are always consequences,” Candi said.

Still in high school, Candi ended up pregnant with Joe’s child and was coerced into a shotgun wedding.

“He was very, very abusive,” Candi said. “And I had baby, after baby, after baby, back to back. And I just thought my life was over … I just had a high school education, and I couldn’t get a job. How could you get a job with four babies? Somebody had to keep them. And I just thought it was the end of my life.”

On the weekends, Candi was still performing at a small club, the 2728 Club in Birmingham, where she met Clarence Carter one night. Carter told Candi that if she ever got rid of “that fool”  – referring to her husband – that she should give him a call.

“And that’s what I did,” Candi said. “I saw my way out.”

Eventually, Candi left her husband, got a divorce and moved to Tennessee.

“My brother-in-law (James Peebles) was a principal of a local school there in Nashville,” Candi said. “I lived with them for a while with my daughter, and I put my other three boys in different family homes so that I could get back on my feet.”

Initially, Candi planned on going to Vanderbilt to study nursing, but a clandestine meeting with Carter changed her path. 

Carter became the connection between Candi and Rick Hall, otherwise known as “The Father of Muscle Shoals Music.” Etta James had just left Hall and he was looking for a new artist. 

Carter reached out to Hall, touting Candi as the solution to his problem, and at Hall’s behest, Carter and Candi traveled down to Muscle Shoals. According to Candi, Hall was so impressed that he roused his salary employees from their sleep and called them all to the studio to record.

That night, as she sang, Candi’s life took a pivot back towards a career in music. She performed “I’d Rather Be an Old Man’s Sweetheart (Than a Young Man’s Fool),” written for Aretha Franklin by George Jackson, who was in the room.

That same night, she recorded two other songs for Hall and officially signed onto his label. 

“When I got behind that microphone, I blew it away,” Candi said. “Rick Hall signed me that night, and the rest is history.”

During this time, she also married Clarence and had a son, Clarence Carter Jr. The two were married in 1970 and remained married until 1973.

While with Hall, Candi made a record every year for eight years. Sadly, the fine print of the contract caught up to Candi.

“I should’ve had an attorney,” she said. “I tell people now, always sign a contract with an attorney … I don’t care how well you know a person, or how well you think you know a person, get you an attorney. Because the royalties were like nothing I would’ve signed for. But since I was such a novice, I didn’t know any better … (and) Clarence is blind.

“He couldn’t read the fine print. He was there when I signed it, but I didn’t know what I was reading. I was just anxious to get signed. I was young and I didn’t know much. And I always tell young people don’t get so excited that you don’t get you an attorney and let him read the fine print, because you will live to regret it.”

Prior to her last record with Hall, Candi received an offer from Warner Bros. However, Hall was reluctant to let her go, so the two labels struck a deal: Candi would make an eighth record with Hall, and if it didn’t sell, she would sign with Warner Bros.

“It was a good record,” Candi said. “But times were changing … and it didn’t do well.”

After that, Rick released Candi to Warner Bros., marking the beginning of another 8-year partnership. Artistically for Candi, it was also a shift away from RnB and soul, and into the world of disco. 

When she arrived in L.A., Candi was paired with an old acquaintance, David Crawford, who became the producer for her first album with the label. The two were given a budget, a studio and each other. 

Candi recalled that Crawford would often carry around pen and paper and take notes when she spoke. At one lunch in particular, Candi told Crawford about a man she was trying to get away from. She recalled how he would threaten to kill her children should she ever leave him. The whole time she spoke, she said she could see Crawford taking notes.

Later, Candi found out that Crawford was in the studio writing after having fasted for 40 days. 

“I came in the studio and the music was playing – it was the most beautiful music I’d ever heard,” Candi said. “I said, ‘David, what in the world is that?’ and he said, ‘Oh, you’re gonna love it.’ He said, ‘I got the first verse, but you go to lunch, by the time you get back, I’ll have the second verse.’”

When Staton walked back in after lunch, Crawford’s first words to her were “are you ready?”

Reading over the lyrics, Candi realized the song was her “life story in three minutes.” The song was “Young Hearts Run Free,” and after one singular run through, Crawford said he had what he needed.

“He said, ‘You sung it the way it needs to be sung,’” Candi said. “It came from the bottom of my spirit, my soul.”

Staton’s first and only take is the one heard today on the “Young Hearts Run Free” track.

That morning, before the two had recorded the song, Crawford told Candi that he was writing her a song “that’s gonna last forever.” Today, “Young Hearts Run Free” is nearly 50 years old, and it is still listened to around the world. Most recently, it was featured in the Emmy-award-winning television show “The Crown.”

“I think it will never go away because each generation goes through the same thing,” Candi said.

“Young Hearts Run Free” was released in 1976, two years after her first album with Warner Bros., “Candi.” She would go on to release “Music Speaks Louder Than Words” in 1977, which included the hit “Nights on Broadway.” 

Over what could be considered a lifelong career, the four-time-Grammy-nominated artist and Christian Music Hall of Fame member has never stopped making music that is authentic and full of soul. Even at the age of 84, she is working on a new album, “Earth Roots,” set to be released in a few months.

A mother to five, grandmother to 19, great-grandmother to 20 and cancer survivor, Candi Staton is still the picture of perseverance and soul as she always has been.

To stay tuned for her new album, learn more about her foundation, or see Candi on tour, visit her website here.